The subject matter disclosed herein relates to patient monitoring. In particular, the present invention relates to managing a patient monitoring secondary alarm notification system.
Patient monitoring devices, such as devices monitoring patient physiological parameters, including but not limited to blood pressure, temperature and electrocardiogram (“ECG”), are designed to identify physiological problems experienced by the patient and to alert clinicians to those problems. Typically, clinicians are alerted to such problems via the generation of alarms, including primary auditory or visual alarms at the particular device. Secondary alarm notifications are generated in order to notify caregivers that are not in close proximity to the alarming device. These secondary alarms are often sent pagers, phones or smart devices carried by clinicians, or directly to sign boards. Primary and secondary alarms may also be generated by patient monitors when technical problems occur with the monitor itself, such as low battery, disconnection of patient monitoring lead, etc.
Current patient monitoring secondary alarm management systems typically follow static, pre-assigned rule sets. These systems do not, for example, take into account whether the first level or primary responder has recently received an alarm notification from a device or is already responding to an alarm notification from a different device, or numerous other conditions. Additionally, while a responder or clinician may desire to attend to all alarm events, he or she may be unable to respond to alarm events in a timely manner because his or her workflow is too heavy, or he or she is located too far away. Several alarms from different devices and locations may occur at once or within a short period of time, and/or a hospital floor may be understaffed, which may create a scenario in which it is impossible for a single responder or clinician to respond to all alarm events in a timely manner.
Hazards may arise when alarms go unrecognized or are not sent to the proper clinician for response. Unheeded alarms and slow response to alarms negatively affect patient care, and can lead to undesired outcomes for patients as an alarm event may indicate a deterioration of a patient's physiological condition, which often requires immediate attention.
Therefore, an improved method and system are needed for effectively managing a patient monitoring alarm notification system.